Fine Gael councillor for Ballina Phyll Bugler says that the pedestrianisation of the old bridge linking Ballina and Killaloe has had a detrimental impact on businesses at either side of the bridge.
The old bridge was officially made pedestrian-only from last October in a joint decision taken by Tipperary County Council and Clare County Council.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Cllr Bugler said that both towns are now struggling to draw people in.
“Once they pedestrianised this bridge, it was as if a shutter came down on Ballina and Killaloe,” Cllr Bugler said.
“Both towns have great businesses, but we’re really feeling it here in Ballina. It’s like this barrier has been put in between our two towns now and it’s a major problem,” she said.
The Fine Gael councillor said she is trying to come up with creative ways to increase footfall between the twin towns to draw more business into the area.
“I’m trying to work with Clare County Council to get the farmers’ market, which is on every Sunday from 9am to 3pm moved up onto the bridge, and then every Sunday we can have activities on the bridge, and I’m saying to traders that they can sell teas, coffees, scones, whatever we can at the start of the bridge,” she said.
Cllr Bugler has long since been opposed to the pedestrianisation plans, and says that now that it has come into effect, she can see that it isn’t working for her town.
“It’s okay for the two councils to talk about people walking across the bridge, but there’s nobody walking across the bridge during the week. At the weekends, certainly we have people walking because of the farmers’ market in the Killaloe side, and people walk across the bridge, but that’s only on a Sunday,” she said.
“We have a nice walk called Walk Our Twin Bridges, which is about 3.5 kilometres long, but a lot of people are parking their cars in strategic areas in Ballina that we need for shopping, and then doing the loop and spending nothing here.
“They’re bringing their own coffee, their own bottle of water, and they’re taking up a parking space on our street,” she said.
The local councillor said that she welcomes a mobility plan for the area to encourage people to walk and cycle more, but said that the plans to make the bridge pedestrian-only were never apart of the overall mobility plan for the twin towns.
“This mobility plan came in, but in the plan, it didn’t say full pedestrianisation of this old bridge. They talked about maybe pedestrianising it for a Sunday afternoon or a Saturday afternoon, or on St Patrick’s Day, and then lo and behold,” she said.
“I don’t know why the two councils really pushed for this pedestrianisation, because really, it’s caused a massive reduction in footfall which in turn, has seen some of our businesses be down 30pc.”
Cllr Bugler says that she would be open to the bridge being closed to traffic on the weekends, but that the population on Ballina and Killaloe doesn’t support a bridge that is closed to traffic all the time.
“Have it open during the week that people who’ve always come to the hairdresser or to the boutique or the chemist or the butchers on the Ballina side, and the same on the Killaloe side, they would be able to come over mid-week.
“If the councils want to do one-way traffic, that’s fine, make it more safe for pedestrians, but there’s so little footfall on the bridge during the week,” she said.
“Our population is quite small, there’s approximately 4,300 people between the two towns. That is not enough to sustain a pedestrianised bridge,” she added.
Cllr Bugler said that she works with traders in the town, and has been trying to encourage them to run offers or discounts in an attempt to draw people back into the town to shop.
“I hold meetings with the businesses every two weeks, trying to drum up business and saying to the traders ‘give me special offers that I can advertise’, I’m trying to get the footfall back in, but unless something major happens, we’re going to be in trouble here,” she said.
“It’s very, very hard on the businesses, who have massive rates to pay,” she said.
The Fine Gael councillor says that it appears that the local authority are just picking and choosing which elements of the mobility plan to implement, but that things the community have campaigned for years for still haven’t been done.
“This was never really in the mobility plan, they haven’t helped the mobility plan. For example, where the old creamery was, it was an objective of the mobility plan that the council would buy that and open up that whole area as an interpretative centre, and a plaza,” she said.
“That didn’t happen because the county council didn’t have enough funding to buy it, so a local businessman bought it. The council are picking and choosing parts of the mobility plan,” she explained.
The council also said that they would create up to 70 new car parking spaces for the town, but Cllr Bugler says this was never done.
“We are trying to get people into Ballina but we don’t have a car park in Ballina for them to park in at the moment,” she said.
“As part of the plan, they said we would get 70 car parking spaces opposite the church, but they have done very little in progressing that. They brought in this pedestrianisation that, in my opinion, wasn’t necessary,” she added.
In a joint statement, Tipperary and Clare County Councils said that the decision to pedestrianise the bridge permanently followed the “gathering [of] robust data and undertaking public engagement.”
“Data collected before and during the trial period demonstrated that closing the bridge to vehicles did not result in any detrimental impact on traffic flows in either Ballina or Killaloe.
“The trial period also highlighted the bridge’s value as a safer environment for pedestrians and cyclists, and its suitability as a venue for local promotional and tourism events,” they said.
“However, the councils acknowledge concerns raised regarding economic impact, as well as issues of accessibility and emergency service response times.”
Both councils say that they will remain supportive of businesses in the twin towns, and will aim to promote them as much as possible.
“The councils remain committed to supporting businesses in both towns and to promoting Killaloe and Ballina as vibrant places for commerce and tourism.”
Tipperary County Council director of services for roads Liam Brett said the “pedestrianisation of the existing bridge can become a cornerstone of the tourist offering for Killaloe and Ballina”.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme